The Met's Cloisters, 2

Cloisters pretty much always involve arcades, colonnades, covered walkways, etc., and their columns had capitals which, in England, France and Spain, often had grotesques, which, in the parlance of this blog, means funny faces. With four (4) cloisters to examine at The Cloisters, we had a great time and will share below some of the better (laughable, lurid, lewd) pix of these capitals. Also some of the better corbels, which were far lower down than in situ, high up on a roof.  And then also some of the more normal museum stuff, much more of which we'll see back at the main museum on 5th Ave. Another day.

But first, and without further ado, here is the unicorn
tapestry for which The Cloisters is perhaps best known;
one of a set concerning the hunting of the unicorn; similar
but also very different from the unicorn tapestries at the
Cluny in Paris, also Belgian/French in origin, 16th; the
docent-led tour was excellent

Wrestlers

Green monster

Contortionist

Maracas percussionist?

Still processing this one

Satan, and sinners being led to Hell

Hell

Lunch-time in one of the cloisters; garden still going

Now back in the museum area, Medieval playing cards

Joker

Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc du Barry; devotional book,
illuminated, late 15th

Beaker with Apes; silver, enamel; early 15th, Burgundian

Passion Triptych with mother of pearl; devotional item
for travel kit; late 15th, German

Chalice, paten, and straw; silver, jewels; mid 13th, German; the paten
was for the bread, the chalice for the wine, and the straw for sipping
the wine after it had been transubstantiated into the Holy Blood (to prevent
holy spills); strange to me that there are no legends about the Holy Straw...
   

Incredibly carved rosary bead (!), rosewood, Netherlandish, 
early 16th, various Biblical scenes

Lots of glass in The Cloisters' gothic chapel, Austrian, mid-14th 

Happy angel, Ile de France, probably decapitated c. 1789

Circumcision, painted glass, German, late 15th

Choir stalls with misericordia, French, 15th; a gift from J. Pierpont Morgan;
as I've probably remarked elsewhere, oftentimes the Met's donors are more
noteworthy than the gifts

Open carry

Beautifully painted ceiling in the room housing the Merode Altarpiece

(previous post)

Christ Is Born As Man's Redeemer, wool and silk, south Netherlandish,
early 16th; among the many tapestries at The Cloisters

The Met's Cloisters, 1

We can't remember whether we first visited The Cloisters--the Met's Medieval satellite way up the river--in 1968, when we were working in New Haven, or in 1970-71, when we were working and studying in Boston. Of course, from college and other studies, we already had more than passing acquaintance with things Medieval. But we're sure we first saw the Cloisters in those years, and it made an impression. We've seen a lot more Medieval stuff in Europe over the years, in situ, most of it, but the Cloisters still warrant a visit. Or two. We were there October 5th and again on October 17th.

An assemblage of artifacts and building parts from Europe, mostly
the Pyrenees and environs, Spain, France, and some Germany, too;
much of it acquired initially by the American art dealer George
Gray Barnard, then bought and placed in Fort Tryon park by
John D. Rockefeller, Jr.; Fort Tryon park a gift from Rockefeller to
the state, the Barnard collection a gift to the Met; he also bought
huge tracts across the river in New Jersey to ensure the views from
Fort Tryon would be preserved...

John D. also gave us the Smokies, the Tetons, and so much more...
public-spirited billionaires always needed...

From forty paces, you'd think this was a van Eyck; and you'd be
nearly right...this is the Merode Altarpiece, attributed to the workshop
of Robert Campin, a contemporary of the van Eycks, who also
dabbled in oil; an Annunciation Triptych; 1430s, Tournai

Central panel

Donor panel

Joseph hacking away panel...

Now in one of the four cloisters (on one of the excellent docent-led
tours); most abbeys had only one cloister, at most two, but this is America...

Jesus float in the Easter parade

Baby J playing with the forbidden fruit

Eve takes a bite and we're all eternally damned, but He
only gets diaper rash...

Hear no evil, see no evil, ...

Interesting depiction of the dragon; Burgos, 1530

Nativity of the Virgin, German, late 15th, paint on limewood; that is,
St. Anne having given birth to the Virgin

Now in the Fuentiduena chapel...a lion relief, c. 1200, originally
from a church in Zamorra

Now in the chancel of the Fuentiduena chapel, 
originally from Segovia; purchased by John D. and
shipped back to the States in 839 crates...more than
3,000 limestone and sandstone blocks...

Romanesque crucifix in the chapel; you can tell it's Romanesque
because Jesus looks relatively serene and his feet are apart,
resting on a sort of step on the cross; this was our big take-away
from the Cloisters and definitely will be on the quiz...we've seen
hundreds (thousands?) of crucifixes, but the distinction between
Romanesque and Gothic crucifixes was something new to us...
always more to learn...

Baptismal thing in the chapel

Painted wood box with scenes from the recapture of Orange, early 13th;
the Muslims had taken Orange, in the south of France, and the scenes
commemorate its "liberation"

Enthroned Virgin and Child, painted walnut, Auvergne,
late 12th

Across the river, the New Jersey Palisades

Way up river, the Tappan Zee Bridge, or possibly some other bridge

Refectory bell, German, 13th, inscribed (in Latin) "I ring
for breakfast, dinner, and drinks," mocktails, presumably...
or possibly some holy schnapps...

Museum Of Modern Art, 2

 More of the MoMA...

Edward Hopper, Gas, 1940; really starting to like Hopper

Picasso, Charnel House, 1945

Peter Blume, Eternal City, 1937

Magritte, The Lovers, 1928

View of one of the MoMA's cavernous interior spaces

Ecce mulier

James Rosenquist, F-111, 1964...

Obligatory Jack the Dripper

Barnett Newman, Vir Heroicus Sublimis, 1950

Rothko, Untitled No. 1, 1948

Kazuo Shiraga, Untitled, 1964; amazing how far art had come in
just two decades

Matisse, Swimming Pool, 1950s..."his first and only self-contained and site-specific cut-out"

Sam Gilliam, 10/27/69; new material...acrylic

At the bottom of the cavern

Kate Crawford, Vladan Joler, Anatomy of an AI System, 2018; pretty fascinating

Nearby and possibly associated with the above; last time
we saw a life-sized Google pin was outside their headquarters
in Mountain View

Otobong Nkanga, Cadence, visual bit

Mike Kelley, Deodorized Central Mass with Satellites, 1980s?;
enlarge to see all the stuffies

Richard Serra, Equal; among the things we really like at the Guggenheim

Bilbao are the massive Richard Serra iron sculptures; here is a much

smaller installation...OK to touch them...

Lastly: art or not art? I say it is art; therefore it is; QED

Midtown by night; definitely art